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She Gods Of Shark Reef
[Alpha Video]
1958; color
Directed by Roger Corman
Starring: Don Durant, Bill Cord & Lisa Montell
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Shot at the same time as Thunder Over Hawaii, this fairly early Corman flick is an obvious example of one of those storied instances in his career where he probably said, "Criminal on the run, set it in the islands, girls, sharks… OK, let's make a movie!" Seriously though, this quickie is no AFI top anything candidate—in fact, it's kinda crappy… even by my standards. With a confusing opening scene followed by plot gaps wide enough to drive a truck through that are explained by way of voiceover, She Gods boldly plunges headfirst into crapulence and doesn't look back. Lee, a would-be gun runner on the run, has apparently enlisted his straight-laced brother, Chris, to help him escape to an island in the South China Sea after a botched arms theft that led to him killing someone. (In self-defense, of course). Their boat gets trashed on a reef by a hurricance and they wind up being rescued from the grips of some angry looking seaweed by a handful of island girls. Once ashore, they learn the island they're on is all-female private island owned by a pearl concern, and that all the girls are pearl divers.But this is no Lesbos of the tropics, it's an all-girl tribe of hula dancing girls who worship an apparently angry native god named Tangarooka. (He's responsible for the storm that shipwrecked the two brothers). Now I'm no sociology or geography expert but I would think that an island that's supposed to be in the South China Sea would not be inhabited by people all wearing Hawaiin dresses and skirts and floral leis—but who knows. Anyway, the guys have to wait ten days for the next supply ship to arrive but Lee is impatient; he knows he's basically a sitting duck until he can get to his friends who can hide him from the authorities. Meanwhile, Chris is falling in love with the native girl who pulled him from the leaves of the aforementioned over-aggressive seaweed—actually she pulled out a knife and cut him loose. The older woman who is like the bossman/supervisor of the whole operation doesn't like this one bit becasue she knows forbidden love will anger the gods, especially Tangarooka, and that means more storms and no pearls. The only way to appease the god is, you guessed it, human sacrifice. Apparently Tangarooka is a shark god, and a hungry one at that, so a little island virgin morsel action should do the trick. Of course thaht sacrificee is the object of Chris's attentions so he's gotta save her, which leads to a panoply of boat chases, hulas, escapes, and sharks aplenty (and death) before the star-crossed couple can be free. It's hard to be more descriptive of such a trainwreck (or should I say shipwreck) of a movie so let's just leave it with the knowledge that turds this stanky were few and far between in RC's long career.
—the Kommandant
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